88 ECONOMY OF FARMING. 



" We seek to know, therefore, how much dry substance the beast eating can appor- 

 priate, and how the rejected parts are increased. 



" The solution of the first part of this question is so difficult that we may consider it 

 in general as impossible to answer it satisfactorily. We observe for example that one 

 head of kine, with equal fodder, gives more milk, obtains more flesh and fat, and uses 

 up more of the fodder than another; that one dry substance is more nutritious than 

 another ; that therefore foddered in equal quantity the animal bodies retain more or less 

 of it, and in the same proportions more or less is cast out therefrom ; that beasts digest 

 that which is eaten better or worse, as well as that the food in and of itself is more or 

 less digestible. &c. Hence, therefore, there remains for us nothing else than to over- 

 look wholly the decrease drawn out by the nourishment — and this may easily be done, 

 since that decrease in fact is not so great that we should represent it to ourselves — 

 and which is replaced again, if not wholly yet in a great degree, by that which the 

 animal organization takes from the air, heat and water, as well as by the slime mixed 

 with the excrements. 



" Not much less difficult is it to determine the weight of that thrown out, since its in- 

 crease rests solely and alone on the moisture mingled with it. But the excrements 

 are, as we know, sometimes thinner, sometimes thicker, and lose weight after being 

 cast out each day, and even each hour, so that they sometimes contain 90, some- 

 times 80, 70, 60, 50 per cent, of moisture, according as they have lain a longer or 

 shorter time ; as they have been carefully or negligently handled, as they have been 

 gathered in the stall or m the yard. Any one can see what a striking difference 

 these circumstances must produce in the weight of the manure. According to the 

 experiments of the Abbate Gazzeri, manure lost after some 4 months, 54.81 per 

 cent. ; thus above half its weight. As this learned man, whose experiment was 

 proposed with only a small mass (some 40 lbs.), sought diligently to diminish the fer- 

 mentation and evaporation of the same, we may suppose that the manure in a consi- 

 derable mass treated after the usual manner would have lost far more. 



We conclude, therefore, that when manure is brought on the field its mois- 

 ture has lost in proportion to its solid parts | of its weight, therefore it yet con- 

 tains 75 per cent, of moisture, a state in which on an average it will for the most part 

 be brought on the field. Accordingly we may expect of the substances fed out the 

 following quantity of manure. 



100 lbs. of fodder. Contain lbs. of Give in lbs. of manure at 



drv parts. 75 per cent, moisture. 



Hay - - - "100 - - - 175 



Straw - - - 100 - . - 175 



Clover - - . - 21 - - - 36|- 



Potatoes - - - 28 - - - 49 



Beets - - - - 12 - - - - 21 



Carrots - - - 13 - - - 22?- 



Cabbage-turnips - 22 - - - 38^ 



Turnips . . lo . _ . 171 



Straw-litter - - 100 - - - 200 



" The multiplier of all the substances mentioned in a dry state will therefore be 1.75, 

 with the exception of the litter, which I have ;aken at do'uble its weight for manure, 

 because it gives nothing for the support of the beasts, and also, on account of its cel- 

 lular tissue and hollow stalks, it is in a state to take up more moisture than can be 

 tlie case after bruising and digestion.'^ 



ScHWERTZ also gives the following tabular view of a Hectare, 4 of which are equal 

 to 10 English acres (therefore about 2^ acres) of green and dry fodder, and the 

 manure furnished by the same : 



